Domestic Bliss

The empathy must have been palpable. Nick Clegg and François Fillon on the ‘phone commiserating with one another. Last Friday Clegg was happy enough with Cameron’s performance in Brussels but by Sunday morning he was criticising his boss. The reason for the change must have been arriving home to find Mrs Clegg brandishing the rolling pin. No doubt she’d had a call from her folks back in Spain asking her what her husband was up to, not helping out the Eurozone. (Incidentally, the reason Clegg was not on the front bench on Monday was because Cameron locked him in the gents just before the session, to keep him quiet.)

Obviously Clegg called Fillon today to have a word about what Baroin had been saying. (Baroin incidentally is employed to do menial tasks for Sarkozy. When Nico stepped down to run for President it was Baroin who (briefly) took over the Interior Ministry, but was soon replaced by bigger fish. He gets jobs when they can’t find anyone else.) Fillon (who no doubt likes his boss as much as Cameron likes Clegg) was able to come to an arrangement with Clegg because Penelope had been giving him an ear-bashing too. Like Maria’s Spanish relatives, Mrs Fillon’s family in Wales had no doubt texted her to complain about Baroin.